Overview:

Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A Reflection for Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

“[Belshazzar], you have rebelled against the Lord of heaven.
You had the vessels of his temple brought before you,
so that you and your nobles, your wives and your entertainers,
might drink wine from them;
and you praised the gods of silver and gold,
bronze and iron, wood and stone,
that neither see nor hear nor have intelligence.
But the God in whose hand is your life breath
and the whole course of your life, you did not glorify.
By him were the wrist and hand sent, and the writing set down.
“This is the writing that was inscribed:
MENE, TEKEL, and PERES.
These words mean:
MENE, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it;
TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting;
PERES, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Dan. 5:23-28)

Find today’s readings here.

I would like to believe that when our lives are over, when all is said and done, everyone will simply end up in a very good place; that, no matter what we have done or failed to do, there is no way that a good and loving God could ever “cast us to hell.” It is unfathomable that even our terrible sinfulness, the passive work of our unrepented evils, will condemn us to some dark and foul abyss: I would totally like to believe that this is not true. 

It is all going to be okay in the end. Right? 

Babylonian King Belshazzar has thrown a lavish banquet with nobles and entertainers. It is the time of Israel’s captivity, and the Babylonians drink from the wine and gold vessels stolen from the temple in Jerusalem. Suddenly a hand appears on a wall writing…something. 

The “writing on the wall.” That which is unstated but really is plain as day. A relationship ends: “You haven’t said it outright, but I know you’re breaking up with me.” Daniel, the Israeli seer in captivity in Babylon, is brought in to interpret the writing on the wall.

The backstory is helpful: Belshazzar is the son of King Nebuchadnezzar. It was Nebuchadnezzar who also had his dreams interpreted by Daniel. For one particular dream, Daniel prophesied that, because of Nebuchadnazzar’s arrogance and his refusal to worship the God above all gods, the mighty king would be cast out from God’s favor to “dwell with wild beasts” and “be given grass to eat like an ox.” And indeed he was struck down by God, until he repented and was restored to his glory.

His son Belshazzar should have gotten the point. Undoubtedly he knew what happened to his father Nebuchadnezzar. But Belshazzar did not learn his lesson. During the lavish banquet for “thousands of his lords,” Belshazzar drank from the holy vessels of the house of God in Jerusalem. He then “praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.” And then writing appears on the wall. They bring in the dream interpreter Daniel, who tells Belshazzar that God is ending his kingdom and giving it to his enemies.

Belshazzar is killed and Daruis the Mede takes over his throne. Like that. Done. 

This scripture passage is not about the “final judgement.” It is not about whether we will be welcomed into eternal life or not. But it leads me there. It gets me wondering about the “last things.” Because this story is about our actions, sins and consequences. It is about learning lessons that have been spelled out for us with absolute clarity. It is about knowing what to do and not doing it. It is about being drunk on power and wrongdoing and paying the price. It is about disobeying God and being cast out of God’s favor. 

Belshazzar had a chance to do the right thing. He could have stayed on the right side of God. But he failed God, so God failed him. It is a bit scary, no?

We just don’t have absolute certainty—as I would prefer we do—about what will happen to us (what God will allow to happen to us) if we do not repent. If we do not take action to reform our lives. To throw down any manner of gold and silver and wood and stone gods we worship. There are consequences. Ones we bring on ourselves. We have a chance to avert the pain to come, we really do. But if we don’t, not even God will stop it.

Joe Hoover, S.J., is America’s poetry editor and producer of a new film, “The Allegory.”